Question of honesty

[grace]

Question of honesty

BY SEAN FORD

18/09/2008 12:00:00 AM

The Advocate

http://nwtasmania.yourguide.com.au/news/lo...ty/1275554.aspx

 

PREMIER David Bartlett owned up to having smoked dope yesterday, eight days after The Advocate first asked the question.

 

Mr Bartlett's simple "yes" admission followed his rival party leaders - Liberal Will Hodgman and Green Nick McKim - owning up to past cannabis use in a story in The Advocate yesterday.

 

Tony McCall, from the UTAS School of Government, said yesterday's story showed Mr Bartlett's "zeal for reform and transparency doesn't appear to extend to his personal habits".

 

"So be it, but Extending Trust in Democracy should include a simple answer to a simple question," Mr McCall said.

 

"His failure to respond does fit an emerging post-state party conference trend.

 

"Since the conference, the doyens of the Labor Party have put a brake on his go-it-alone approach to government and that makes the manufacture of an answer a complex and contested task."

 

Meanwhile, Mr Bartlett said parliament would be the proper place to discuss any proposal for random drug-testing politicians.

 

"I believe in making informed decisions that are supported by evidence-based data," he said.

 

"Nothing has been presented to me on this particular topic."

 

Murchison independent MLC Ruth Forrest said random drug testing in workplaces was usually done when people were operating heavy machinery and/ or responsible for others' safety.

 

`We might not be responsible for someone's immediate physical safety, but we are making decisions that affect people where they live and work.

 

 

"We need to have our wits about us.

 

"I would not have a problem (with testing) at all."